Somehow, I didn’t catch this one when it was announced last November:
My hometown was crowned the No. 1 best city to move to in the United States, according to a study by MRI Software. The report called Nashua, with 91,000 residents, a hidden gem that offers quality of life, job opportunities, charm and one of the “highest safety scores in the country (73.3%).”
And yet, people do go missing in Nashua and in the surrounding area, not often, but it makes you wonder how it could ever happen here.
I’ve been following the Nancy Guthrie case concerning the 84-year-old widowed mother of Savannah Guthrie, the famous co-anchor of NBC News’ “Today” show. Tucson, Arizona, with 556,000-plus residents, is much larger than Nashua, with 91,900, and the alleged incident occurred in a rural area outside the city limits, with no street lights and near hilly desert terrain.
Last seen on Jan. 31, law enforcement officials now say Nancy Guthrie, a grandmother who lived alone, was abducted from her bed. The family has recently offered up to $1 million for information leading to the finding of Nancy Guthrie. Her disappearance has captivated the nation, and although developments seem to materialize every few days, none of them have led to an arrest.
It’s puzzling. With 400-plus people assigned to the case, sophisticated digital technology and news reports circulating worldwide, the search continues. For many of us watching this story closely, it now sadly appears to be a recovery rather than a rescue.
Anyone with a beating heart who has seen Savannah Guthrie’s tearful social media videos pleading for her mother’s return can feel her anguish. I cannot imagine how my family and I would react if this involved our own mother, Effie, who was lucky to live a long life and feel safe in her home and surroundings. I’d feel utterly broken.
April Jean Bailey
Now, consider the case of April Jean Bailey, who has been missing from Nashua since 2020.
Bailey’s family are not famous and lack unlimited resources, but they, too, deeply love and miss her and don’t want people to forget her.
The Nashua mom of three was last seen taking out trash on Jan. 15, 2020, at a home on Lynn Street where she was renting a room. She walked out in her slippers, black sweatpants and a large, black jacket with a fur hood.
Bailey, 36 at the time, has been gone since, and I’d like to believe someone out there knows something.
Missing for six years is a long time, and the FBI got involved with the case in 2021, citing her disappearance as suspicious. I remember her story well. I often drove by the Allds Street and Fifield Street intersection during that cold, snowy January, about a 4-minute drive from where Bailey was allegedly kidnapped.
Her abduction haunted me; I didn’t know her, but my gut instinct told me she was taken to a wooded area in or around water.
Then, in late April 2021, Nashua firefighters and police dive teams, and N.H. State Police K-9s, were part of a search in the water and woody shoreline off Burke Street. This area is about a 2-minute drive from Allds Street. Unfortunately, the search found nothing.
If you have information about April Jean Bailey, call Nashua Police at 603-594-3500. Or contact the Boston FBI office at 857-386-2000 or tips.fbi.gov.
Savannah Guthrie poignantly remarked in her last message, “Hope begets hope, as my sister says. We are blowing on the embers of hope.”
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